SIAM 


Foreign  Missionaries  sent  by  Nan 
Church — to  preach  to  Laos  people. 
28  days’  journey  from  heme. 


The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A. 
156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 


SIAM  AFTER  THE  WAR 

The  Siamese  people  never  talk  politics, 
and  almost  never  talk  about  the  weather. 
Western  civilization  has  made  great  prog¬ 
ress  over  there,  but  these  two  teatures  of 
it  are  lacking.  In  considering  any  subject 
connected  with  politics  we  must  remember 
that,  so  far  as  the  people  are  concerned, 
such  a  thing  is  unknown  in  Siam. 

Cur  missionaries  make  it  a  rule  never  to 
interfere  in  civil  affairs.  The  beginnings  of 
nearly  all  civil  and  social  reforms  in  the 
past  fifty  years  may  be  traced  to  mission¬ 
ary  influence,  but  that  influence  is  exerted 
indirectly,  through  unremitting  labors  for 
the  moral  and  religious  uplift  or  the  people. 

The  Siamese  call  themselves  the  “free” 
people;  and  on  account  of  this  freedom-lov¬ 
ing  spirit  of  the  race,  they  will  accept  no 
benefit,  economic,  commercial,  or  religious, 
from  people  of  another  race,  which  would 
tend  to  bring  them  under  subjection  to  that 
race.  Acting  in  sympathy  with  this  spirit, 
the  missionaries  have  the  goodwill  of  the 
government  officials,  and  have  accomplished 
much  good  in  public  affairs. 

The  Siamese  are  great  lovers  of  the 
drama,  and  the  King  has  dramatic  talent  of 
a  high  order.  His  Majesty’s  proclamation 
on  the  occasion  of  signing  the  Armistice 
last  November  had  the  effect  of  staging  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  peace  pageants  seen 
in  any  country.  Many  thousands  of  sol¬ 
diers,  sailors,  and  police  in  different  uni¬ 
forms,  officials  in  court  costumes,  Euro¬ 
peans  and  Asiatics  of  many  nationalities, 
and  the  members  of  the  royal  family  dressed 
in  cloth  of  gold  assembled  on  the  Royal 
Plaza;  and  at  a  given  signal,  every  knee 
was  bent  in  token  of  thanksgiving  for  the 
return  of  peace  with  victory  for  the  Allies. 
Although  the  royal  proclamation  mentioned 
only  thanks  to  the  Buddhist  Trinity,  it  was 

o 


understood  that  Christians  should  return 
thanks  to  God  and  Mohammedans  to  Al¬ 
lah.  The  gathering  together  of  many  races 
professing  different  religions  in  this  su¬ 
preme  act  of  public  devotion  has  been  made 
possible  only  by  the  sane  and  persistent 
publishing  through  many  years  of  the  pre¬ 
cepts  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

At  present  the  King  of  Siam  is  the  most 
absolute  monarch  on  earth.  His  people  are 
intensely  communistic,  yet  there  is  less  so¬ 
cial  unrest  in  Siam  than  in  almost  any  other 
country  of  the  world.  The  fact  that  the 
constant  proclamation  of  the  Christian  faith 
by  American  missionaries  throughout  the 
kingdom  has  been  done  in  a  spirit  of  loy¬ 
alty  to  the  Government,  has  had  no  small 
share  in  producing  this  admirable  situation. 

EFFECTS  OF  THE  WAR 

A  temporary  effect  is  a  great  increase  in 
the  cost  of  living.  The  enormous  demand 
for  rice,  the  chief  food  product  of  Siam, 
among  the  starving  millions  of  the  Far 
East,  caused  such  a  large  export  that  the 
price  rose  to  five  times  the  usual  rate.  Then 
the  Government  forbade  the  exportation  of 
rice  except  by  special  license,  and  the  price 
was  brought  under  control.  The  advance 
in  the  price  of  silver  and  copper  drove  near¬ 
ly  all  metal  coins  out  of  circulation  for  a 
time,  but  the  change  in  the  standard  of  fine¬ 
ness  in  these  coins  and  the  use  of  the  mint 
exclusivelv  for  issuing  the  smaller  coins 
will  probably  soon  relieve  that  difficulty. 

In  1917  the  best  Siamese  aviators  were 
sent  to  France.  They  had  for  several  years 
been  making  their  own  aeroplanes,  all  but 
the  engines,  and  flying  them  successfully. 
Since  the  return  of  these  men,  it  is  evident 
that  the  Government  does  not  propose  to 
allow  their  acquired  knowledge  and  skill  in 
this  art  to  be  wasted,  for  they  have  ar¬ 
ranged  with  the  British  Government  to  have 

3 


Bangkok  one  of  the  regular  stations  on  the 
Commercial  Aero  Line  between  London 
and  Australia.  This  will  make  Siam  more 
prominent  on  the  map  of  the  world  than  it 
has  ever  been  before. 

Nearly  four  thousand  progressive  young 
Siamese  have  been  fighting  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  American  and  French  repub¬ 
licans  in  this  war.  Now  that  they  have  re¬ 
turned  and  are  scattered  in  their  homes, 
their  influence  will  produce  a  new  era  that 
will  certainly  modify  in  many  respects  the 
old  regime.  The  old  inertia,  fostered  for 
centuries  by  Buddhist  teachings,  is  breaking 
up.  All  social  and  religious  life  is  crystal¬ 
lizing  in  new  patterns.  The  old  philosophy 
which  taught  that  everything  came  into  ex¬ 
istence  of  itself  is  no  longer  tenable.  The 
popular  search  for  the  cause  of  these  great 
world  movements  is  leading  intelligent  peo¬ 
ple  to  recognize  the  great  First  Cause. 

Siam  remained  neutral  until  after  the 
United  States  had  entered  the  war,  and  then 
came  the  published  explanation  that  Siam 
was  fighting  for  democracy  under  the  lead 
of  President  Wilson  and  the  United  States. 
This  has  given  the  American  missionaries 
a  prestige  and  prominence  that  will  greatly 
increase  their  influence  with  the  people. 
The  position  of  this  country  as  the  cham¬ 
pion  of  small  nations  will  give  the  people 
a  new  confidence  that  the  missionaries  have 
no  axe  to  grind  and  the  assurance  that  we 
want  not  theirs  but  them. 

THE  AGE-LONG  CONFLICT 

The  brightening  of  the  dawn  of  peace 
throughout  the  world  does  not  mean  any 
lessening  of  the  world-wide,  age-long  con¬ 
flict  between  good  and  evil,  between  Christ 
and  Satan,  among  the  Siamese  people.  We 
may  rather  expect  that  conflict  to  increase, 
to  become  more  widespread  and  more  acute 
now  that  the  physical  warfare  has  ceased. 

4 


The  outcome  of  the  war  has  been  a  tre¬ 
mendous  triumph  for  Christianity.  Hith¬ 
erto  the  Siamese  people  have  been  accus¬ 
tomed  to  view  the  great  Christian  nations  of 
the  West  as  land-grabbers,  using  their  pow¬ 
er  unjustly  against  weaker  peoples.  Now, 
tney  see  the  altruistic  spirit  of  the  Christian 
faith  shine  forth  in  the  sacrifice  of  blood 
and  treasure  in  the  cause  of  righteousness, 
in  the  feeoing  of  starving  millions  of  other 
races,  and  in  the  severe  rebuke  to  strong 
nations  who  would  enrich  themselves  at  the 
expense  of  the  helpless.  This  outbreak  of 
moral  indignation,  which  has  prompted  the 
sending  of  thousands  of  Siamese  to  fight  in 
the  cause  of  other  nations  overseas,  is  vir¬ 
tually  a  breaking  away  from  the  teachings 
of  Buddhism,  which  makes  indifference  the 
highest  virtue.  This  stirring  up  of  the  na¬ 
tional  consciousness  from  the  depths  is  a 
great  preparation  for  the  acceptance  of 
Christianity. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  must  expect  more 
strenuous  resistance  on  the  part  of  Budd¬ 
hism  in  the  near  future.  In  former  years, 
the  Buddhist  forces  have  hardly  taken  our 
missionary  program  seriously.  It  seemed 
to  them  not  worth  while  to  contend  against 
it.  But  now  that  the  priests  must  pass  by 
hundreds  of  front  gates  in  the  morning  vis¬ 
itation  without  receiving  any  contribution 
of  food  for  the  day,  that  reaches  them 
where  they  live,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that 
they  are  roused  to  resistance. 

Our  missionary  skirmish  line,  which 
stretches  down  through  this  race  more  than 
a  thousand  miles  in  length,  should  be 
viewed  in  three  different  sections.  In  Yun¬ 
nan  Province,  China,  Buddhism  does  not 
exist.  There  our  missionaries  do  not  meet 
any  organized  religious  force  in  opposition, 
and  they  are  making  rapid  progress  from 
the  outset.  In  North  Siam,  the  people  are 
only  nominally  Buddhist;  in  reality  they  are 

5 


spirit  worshipers.  The  Buddhist  temples 
are  mainly  a  place  of  instruction  for  young 
men  and  a  place  of  asylum  for  old  men. 
The  religion  is  not  strongly  organized. 
Here  our  missionary  work  is  prospering, 
meeting  with  only  half-hearted  opposition. 
But  in  South  Siam  Buddhism  is  strongly 
entrenched  and  organized  against  the  in¬ 
trusion  of  any  other  faith.  It  is  strength¬ 
ened  by  the  prestige  and  power  of  the  royal 
court,  and  the  priests  outnumber  the  mis¬ 
sionaries  and  Christian  preachers  more 
than  a  hundred  to  one.  We  find  many 
signs  of  increasing  weakness,  but  no  signs 
of  yielding.  The  Buddhist  teachers  are 
adopting  many  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  setting  them  forth  as 
Buddhist  teachings.  We  may  expect  soon 
to  see  them  take  up  our  methods,  such  as 
the  Sunday  School  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
as  they  are  doing  in  Japan. 

Mission  work  in  this  country  will  be  hard¬ 
er  than  ever  before.  It  will  require  a 
stronger  force,  and  more  thorough  prepa¬ 
ration  on  the  part  of  the  workers.  The 
agnosticism  and  rationalism  of  Europe  is 
being  introduced  by  means  of  translations 
into  the  Siamese  language,  and  we  must 
meet  this  attack  by  means  of  Christian 
philosophy  and  theology  translated  into 
Siamese.  Our  Siamese  preachers  must  be 
thoroughly  furnished  and  able  to  give  a 
reason  for  their  faith.  But  we  must  under¬ 
stand  that  this  conflict  is  not  to  be  won  in 
South  China,  nor  yet  in  North  Siam.  In 
South  Siam,  where  the  work  is  hardest,  is 
our  Argonne  region,  and  there  victory  must 
be  sought. 

J.  A.  EAKIN, 
Petchaburi,  Siam. 


0 


WORLD  TRANSPORTATION 

When  the  first  news  of  the  great  war  was 
received  by  the  inland  people  of  Siam,  it 
was  plain  to  the  missionary  mingling  with 
them  that  they  sided  with  Germany.  They 
were  greatly  astounded  when  the  British 
joined  in  on  the  side  of  the  French  and 
Russians.  The  expectation  that  Germany 
would  be  victorious  held  its  place  in  their 
convictions  until  the  day  that  Siam  boldly 
jumped  into  the  war  on  the  side  of  the  En¬ 
tente.  Immediately  their  sentiments  faced 
about  the  other  way.  From  that  time  on 
the  people  were  eager  for  every  bit  of  news 
that  would  indicate  any  weakening  on  the 
part  of  Germany  and  her  allies.  Many  and 
many  an  hour  was  spent  drawing  maps  in 
the  sand,  explaining  the  situation  and 
showing  the  possibilities  of  success  or  fail¬ 
ure  at  each  point.  Thus  the  war  helped  to 
make  the  outside  world  more  real  to  many 
thousands  of  the  people  who  had  been  wont 
to  consider  the  “Farung”  as  some  sort  of  an 
un-understandable  creature  from  another 
world.  The  war  thus  moved  the  whole 
world  right  up  to  their  own  doors,  for  were 
not  some  of  their  own  kind  in  those  fight¬ 
ing  lines  “Somewhere  in  France”? 

CULTIVATING  HOME  INDUSTRIES 

In  another  way  the  War  brought  the  rest 
of  the  world  close  to  the  Siamese,  and  that 
was  when  the  rising  prices  of  the  world’s 
goods  began  to  reach  the  pocketbooks  of 
the  people.  It  gave  them  a  fellow  feeling 
for  the  suffering  world  when  they  them¬ 
selves  were  compelled  to  go  without.  Ger¬ 
many  had  been  wont  to  cater  to  the  trade 
of  Siam.  All  sorts  of  poor  grade,  cheap 
articles  were  imported  and  distributed  by 
the  traders  to  the  utmost  corner  of  the 
land.  This  was  carried  on  to  such  an  ex¬ 
tent  that  home  industries  suffered.  Old 


7 


mines  were  abandoned  and  the  people  in  a 
large  measure  ceased  to  make  their  own 
tools.  Spinning  wheels  ceased  to  hum  and 
looms  to  click,  clack  in  many  of  the  homes 
of  the  land  and  many  a  cotton  garden  went 
unplanteo.  it  was  cheaper  to  buy  than 
make.  But  the  war  sent  prices  climbing 
high,  while  wages  remained  on  the  old  level 
and  work  became  scarce.  They  could  no 
longer  purchase  even  the  little  stuff  that 
managed  to  reach  their  markets.  The  peo¬ 
ple  found  that  they  had  been  leaning  on  the 
rest  of  the  world  and  it  had  become  a  brok¬ 
en  reed  to  them.  “Back  to  the  cotton  gar¬ 
dens;  back  to  the  iron  and  copper  pits,”  is 
now  the  cry.  The  missionary  had  preached 
it  years  ago  and  early  in  the  war  prophesied 
that  they  must  come  to  it,  but  they  laughed 
at  him.  Now,  they  have  learned  that  they 
must  cultivate  home  industries.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  when  the  world  comes  back, 
knocking  at  the  door  of  Siam  for  readmis¬ 
sion  of  its  cheap  clap-trap,  it  will  find  a 
decreasing  instead  of  an  increasing  trade; 
that  Siam  having  learned  the  lesson  will 
have  established  the  use  of  her  own  re¬ 
sources  in  making  better  articles  for  her 
own  consumption.  Then  Siam  will  be 
shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  business  broth¬ 
erhood  of  nations. 

POSSIBILITIES 

Passivity  is  at  the  very  foundation  of 
Siam’s  religion.  One  would  suppose  that 
“Passive  Resistance”  would  be  the  idea  that 
would  rule  the  nation  in  her  international 
affairs  and  especially  when  it  came  to  a 
matter  of  real  strife.  Contrary  to  all  nat¬ 
ural  expectations,  Siam  ignored  all  bounds 
of  passive  resistance  and  boldly  as  well  as 
effectively  joined  in  the  world  war.  There 
was  a  time  when  it  looked  as  though  Amer¬ 
ica  would  be  the  leader  of  the  world  of  na- 


8 


tions  because  she  had  a  president  who  dared 
to  enunciate  Christian  principles  as  the  only 
basis  for  international  peace  relations.  We 
have  long  known  that  it  takes  a  real  Chris¬ 
tian  to  put  into  practical  effect  Christianity 
among  individuals.  From  analogy  we  should 
know  likewise  that  it  will  take  a  Christian 
nation  to  exemplify  national  Christianity. 
It  has  been  demonstrated  that  the  Siamese 
people  are  capable  of  understanding  Chris¬ 
tianity,  and  to  the  extent  to  which  they  have 
already  adopted  it  for  their  own  faith  they 
have  conformed  more  closely  to  the  living 
example,  Christ  Jesus;  they  have  established 
a  purer  church  than  any  other  Oriental  peo¬ 
ple.  Unlike  the  heterogeneous  masses  in 
America,  so  difficult  to  bring  into  line  on 
any  subject,  Siam  has  a  homogeneous  pop¬ 
ulation.  Should  those  to  whom  the  people 
bow,  in  reverence  for  the  authority  they 
bear,  from  the  King  as  supreme  to  the  most 
humble  of  his  officials,  should  those  leaders, 
who  once  cut  the  Gordian  knot  of  passive 
resistance  and  declared  war,  should  they 
lake  another  bold  step  and  adopt  the  Chris¬ 
tian  faith,  the  people  as  a  people  would 
heartily  endorse  the  action  of  their  leaders 
and  Siam  would  be  found  to  be  a  Christian 
nation  such  as  is  not  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  today.  Then  Siam  would  be  trans¬ 
ported  from  her  present  position  to  the 
front  ranks,  to  the  leadership  of  the  nations. 
Siam’s  king  would  then  be  another  Moses 
to  lead  his  people  out  of  the  bondage  of 
Egypt,  the  bondage  to  superstitions  and 
idols.  He  would  not  be  transporting  them 
to  a  land  “flowing  with  milk  and  honey,” 
for  Siam  is  that  land  already,  but  would  be 
leading  them  forth  to  a  life  more  abundant 
and  glorious,  life  eternal. 

HUGH  TAYLOR, 
Muang  Nan,  Siam. 


9 


THE  VILLAGE  PLAN  FOR  HOUSING 
LEPERS 


Grant  from  Government 

Some  time  ago  Dr.  James  W.  McKean,  of 
the  Chiengmai  (Siam)  Hospital  and  Dis¬ 
pensary,  sent  a  request  to  the  Siamese  Gov¬ 
ernment  for  10,000  ticals  as  a  grant-in-aid 
to  the  Leper  Asylum  of  that  place.  On 
February  19th  he  writes:  “It  gives  me  great 
pleasure  to  say  that  this  morning  I  received 
a  letter  from  the  Governor  of  Chiengmai, 
advising  me  that  he  had  received  a  telegram 
from  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior  announc¬ 
ing  that  the  grant  had  now  been  made,  and 
that  as  soon  as  the  money  is  received  in 
Chiengmai  he  will  advise  me.  We  are  deep¬ 
ly  grateful  to  His  Majesty’s  Government 
for  this  timely  aid  and  also  for  their  sym¬ 
pathetic  attitude  toward  the  work  of  the 
Asylum.” 

A  Bit  of  History 

Beginning  with  no  funds,  with  six  out¬ 
cast  lepers,  and  a  bit  of  jungle  land,  the  in¬ 
stitution  has  grown  until,  at  the  close  of  the 
first  decade,  there  are  eight  brick  cottages 
and  a  ninth  under  construction,  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  six  lepers,  an  organized  church, 
three  schools,  and  a  staff  of  useful  assist¬ 
ants.  The  Mission  to  Lepers  has  aided  the 
institution  in  a  most  generous  manner  from 
the  first  day  until  the  present  time.  Not 
only  has  financial  aid  been  given  freely,  but 
wise  and  sympathetic  counsel  as  well.  To 
the  aid  given  by  this  Mission  is  due  in  a 
large  measure  the  beginnings  of  the  work 
and  its  continuance  also. 

During  the  past  year  a  total  of  thirty- 
eight  lepers  were  received.  Some  of  these 
unfortunates  came  after  severe  experiences, 
to  find  in  this  Asylum  the  only  welcome  that 

10 


is  to  be  found  in  the  whole  kingdom  for 
persons  of  this  kind.  During  the  decade 
some  four  hundred  and  fifteen  lepers  have 
found  shelter  here,  and  all  of  them  have  be¬ 
come  Christians. 

The  dedication  of  a  new  women’s  cottage 
on  the  23rd  of  August  was  an  interesting 
event.  A  generous  gift  of  4,000  ticals  made 
by  Phra  Anuwatt  Raja  Niyom  made  the 
erection  of  this  fine  cottage  possible.  The 
building  is  of  brick,  with  six  large,  well  ven¬ 
tilated  rooms,  each  with  a  fireplace.  It  will 
accommodate  thirty  persons.  This  is  the 
eighth  brick  cottage  in  the  Asylum  and  is 
highly  appreciated  by  the  management  and 
by  the  leper  women.  The  hearty  thanks  of 
all  interested  in  the  leper  is  due  to  the 
donor. 

A  new  and  small  style  of  cottage  is  now 
being  built  for  use  in  the  Asylum.  The 
large  Asylum  in  the  Philippines,  with  its 
forty-five  hundred  lepers  and  its  eleven 
years  of  experience  in  handling  the  largest 
number  of  lepers  ever  assembled,  is  using 


THIS  IS  THE  TYPE  OF  COTTAGE  FOR  USE  IN 
THE  LEPER  VILLAGES. 

11 


to  a  very  large  extent  the  village  plan  of 
housing  the  dwellers  in  the  Asylum.  The 
large  dormitories,  similar  to  the  eight 
Chiengmai  cottages  mentioned  above,  are 
used  for  the  newcomers.  Later  these  lepers 
are  transferred  to  the  cottages,  where  liv¬ 
ing  by  twos  and  threes  in  village  style  is 
found  to  be  much  more  normal  and  more 
to  the  liking  of  the  lepers.  This  plan  is 
being  inaugurated  here.  There  are  two 
hundred  and  six  lepers  in  the  Asylum,  and 
the  Chaulmoogra  oil  treatment  continues  to 
give  encouraging  results. 

Our  ninth  brick  cottage  is  now  well  un¬ 
der  way.  It  is  being  built  by  the  Woman’s 
Interdenominational  Missionary  Union  of 
Washington,  D.  C.  This  cottage  is  to  be 
named  “The  Washington  City  Leper  Cot¬ 
tage  for  Women,  A  Memorial  to  Bertha  G. 
Johnson.”  Miss  Johnson  did  service  in  In¬ 
dia  as  a  missionary  of  our  Board.  Later,  as 
Field  Secretary  of  the  Mission  to  Lepers, 
she  gave  most  efficient  service  to  the  leper 
cause. 

The  continued  interest  in  spiritual  things 
among  the  lepers  is  most  encouraging. 
While  they  are  all  sick  people,  and  while 
some  of  them  are  far  from  faultless,  yet 
they  show  evidences  of  grace  by  their  con¬ 
stancy  in  the  Word  and  in  prayer  and  in 
the  continuance  of  their  gifts.  Out  of  their 
poverty  they  give  liberally  for  the  suoport 
of  the  Theological  School,  for  Bible  distri¬ 
bution  among  their  own  people  and  among 
the  soldiers  in  the  trenches  and  for  similar 
objects. 

A  system  of  local  self-government  has 
been  introduced  and  is  giving  satisfaction 
and  is  bringing  about  better  discipline. 


November,  1919 


Form  No.  2681 


